No one to push

Ethics Commission

The NFL is not the only organization with an obscure "push" rule that can take the game away from you.

The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission has one, too. And, like the NFL, it used its never-before-enforced rule to push Cape Cod Sen. Dan Wolf, a Democrat, out of the race for governor.

In the NFL's case, the referees in the Oct. 20 tight game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets, used the previously unenforced "push" rule (one team mate pushing another into a blocking position) to allow the Jets' field goal kicker a second chance to defeat the Patriots, which he did.

That was a week ago Sunday. The following Monday, Wolf was forced out of the race for governor because the clock ran out on his request to have the state Ethics Commission reassess its August decision that forced Wolf off the ballot.

The Ethics Commission in August ruled that Wolf, a liberal and self-made businessman, would either have to resign from the state Senate and give up his campaign for governor, or give up his interests in Cape Air, a company he founded 25 years ago. Cape Air for years has had contracts with MassPort for landing fees at Logan, fees that are set by the federal government, are not negotiated and apply to all airlines. In other words, neither Wolf nor Cape air has anything to do with setting the fares.

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Wolf appealed the commission's strict reading of the law, and the commission agreed in September to reassess its ruling after an influential number of groups and citizens backed Wolf. These included Common Cause, former Attorneys General Frank Bellotti and Scott Harshbarger, as well as a host of other prominent lawyers, judges and public officials.

What Wolf sought was an exception to the conflict-of-interest rule because neither he nor his company had anything to do with the setting of rates at Logan Airport.

But instead of reassessing its draconian decision, the commission let time run out, and in effect pushed Wolf out of the race for governor.

It was clear to anyone who knows anything about Massachusetts state government -- or who even has half a brain -- that the conflict-of-interest rules administered by the Ethics Commission in no way were meant to apply to a situation such as the one Wolf found himself in.

It was a lot like the "push" rule in the NFL that the referees in the New England Patriots-New York Jets game could have called either way. But in Wolf's case, the Ethics Commission decided that it knew better than the voters, and it was up to its five anonymous members to decide who can run for governor and who cannot.

Sadly, in all their anonymity, the commissioners ruled against the very type of individual that you would encourage to get into politics in the first place. He is a successful businessman and a progressive who started Cape Air from scratch and built it into a company that now employees 1,000 people.

But not only did the commission rule against Wolf, it also declined to take up his appeal in an expeditious manner. The commissioners let the clock run out. So last week Wolf threw in the towel and dropped out of the race for governor. And right now, he will be lucky if the commission does not run him out of the state Senate.

How is it that the state has come to the point where an unelected, anonymous group of bureaucrats, like the commissioners of the Ethics Commission -- accountable to no one -- can tell the voters and the candidates who can and cannot run for public office?

Theoretically, the commission reports to the governor. He appoints three of the five members. But Gov. Deval Patrick lost whatever little interest he had in the workings of state government a long time ago. His only comment was that the decision "may be technically right, but is practically odd."

Any other governor would have picked up the phone, called over to the commission, and said: "What the hell is going on over there?" But not Patrick. In the final analysis, though, the Legislature has only itself to blame as it watches one of its own shot down in flames. It was the Democrats in the Legislature who created the Ethics Commission in the first place.

And in the world of unintended consequences, it has come back to bite them. Push came to shove.

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1825@aol.com.

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